Growing regulation and consumer demand are increasing the need for alternatives to conventional plastic packaging. Finnish company Fiberdom has introduced Duranova, a material made entirely from FSC-certified wood fibres. The material is plastic-free, recyclable, and home-compostable, designed to meet performance requirements in packaging while reducing environmental impact.

Properties and applications

Duranova combines durability, formability, and light weight, enabling the production of thin yet resilient components. Unlike many existing biobased materials, it does not rely on industrial composting facilities and does not require additives that interfere with recyclability.

The material is already applied in single-use cutlery available on the Finnish market and is being tested for additional formats such as beverage lids and food container lids. Its potential lies in applications where strength, shapeability, and low weight are important, offering designers and manufacturers a plastic-free alternative.

Production and forming technology

To expand production, Fiberdom has partnered with German machinery manufacturer Kiefel. The collaboration focuses on combining Duranova with dry fibre forming technology, which uses less water than traditional wet forming processes. This method can improve energy and resource efficiency for certain product geometries and supports cost-effective production at scale.

Several applications are currently in the final stages of testing in Kiefel’s laboratories. Further research is exploring the scope of dry forming combined with Duranova to assess where fibre-based materials can replace plastics without compromising function.

Outlook

The European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) sets ambitious targets for recyclability and reduced plastic use. With the fibre-based packaging market forecast to expand significantly in the coming decade, materials such as Duranova illustrate how fibre innovations may contribute to circular packaging solutions.

Source & photo: Fiberdom / Kiefel